


Buried Alive

by Onehelluvapilot



Series: Febuwhump [9]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Buried Alive, Cave-In, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Hurt Leon (Merlin), Hurt Percival (Merlin), Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Panic Attacks, Permanent Injury, mentioned only - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29135118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onehelluvapilot/pseuds/Onehelluvapilot
Summary: The tunnels of Andor were always a dangerous place, but doubly so when a sorcerer with bad aim but enough strength to bring down the stone walls decided to attack the Knights of Camelot there. Percival and Leon end up trapped beneath the rubble.
Relationships: Leon & Percival (Merlin)
Series: Febuwhump [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2134998
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Buried Alive

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by LiGi

The tunnels of Andor were always a dangerous place, but doubly so when a sorcerer with bad aim but enough strength to bring down the stone walls decided to attack them there. At the last second when he was preparing his spell, he tripped, and the blast of power hit the ceiling above the group of knights, king, and Merlin instead of the men themselves. As soon as Percival saw this, he reached out to either side of him and shoved Gwaine and Elyan forwards. Leon did the same thing for Lancelot, while Merlin tackled Arthur to the ground and away from the collapsing roof. That was all he was able to see before the rock hit him and darkness descended.

Percival woke up to the feeling of suffocation, of something pressing down hard against his chest and not letting up. Panic immediately began to set in. He thought… he thought the rockfall would have killed him. He had been okay with that, the knowledge that he had died protecting his friends, and the knowledge that in heaven he could see his family again. But the Lord was not here with him, there was no peace or light, just cold and darkness and… what if he had died? What if he had died and this was Hell, the utter absence of love and God’s warmth, and separated from his brothers whom he’d left behind. Was he doomed here, for all the men he had murdered? He thought those had been righteous killings, done in the name of revenge, of protection, and in the name of King Arthur, the rightful king of Albion. What if the gods saw it differently? Despite the lack of air in his lungs, a sob escaped him.

“Per-percival,” someone coughed, and his eyes snapped open. He struggled to move, to try to turn towards where he thought the sound had come from, but there was rock all around him. It crushed his legs, pressed its rough edges into his sides. There was a small space surrounding his head, a little air, and he managed to turn his head.

“Who-” he asked, before a cough cut him off as he choked on rock dust.

“It’s Leon, Percival,” the man replied, and the sob that escaped the larger man was one of relief this time. He wasn’t dead yet, and he wasn’t going to die alone. “Hey, listen to me, it’s okay. The others will be finding a way to get us out of here already, I’m sure. They’ll… I don’t know, maybe they’ll force the sorcerer at sword point to help move the rocks, or organize a whole group of people to come dig us out. Arthur will not abandon us.”

It sounded like the First Knight was trying to convince himself of his fact as much as his friend, but Percival found he didn’t mind so much. He tried not to cry, because he could barely breathe as it was, but tears slipped down his cheeks and this throat felt tight, and not just because of the oppressive feeling of the air.

“Percival, can you talk to me?” Leon asked, his voice concerned. “Tell me, are you hurt? Can you move at all?”

“No, I’m trapped,” he managed to croak out. “Would that I were on the outside, so at least my strength could be of benefit to you, my friend.”

“Likewise. Are you hurt?”

“I don’t… I don’t know. I can barely feel my legs,” Percival admitted, and that realization was almost as scary as thinking he was dead. What if they were broken? Even if he survived, he might not recover, and then how would he remain a knight? He would be a burden on his friends instead of a protector, unable to protect them just like he had failed to protect his family-

“Percival, hey, listen to me,” Leon said firmly. “You need to calm down. Panicking is only going to use up whatever air we have down here faster.” He realized that he was hyperventilating, and shaking now. How the statement was supposed to help him regain his composure by scaring him, he didn’t know, and he would have retorted that to the other knight if he’d been able. “Try to slow down your breathing, alright? Inhale with me for four seconds, okay?” There was a pause, and in the oppressive near-silence of the cave in, where the rock muffled all sound from the outside, it felt like Percy could hear the air stirring in Leon’s lungs. He tried to follow along. “And then hold it if you can for seven seconds. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven- and then exhale for eight. Try to push all the air out of your lungs.” Wouldn’t breathing deeply just use up their air faster? He wanted to ask, but he trusted Leon, so he tried to obey. 

The knight led him through the breathing exercise a few more times, and then told him that he was just going to do it along with him for awhile. “You can talk to me if you want when you feel ready,” he added. Percival thought he would start to panic again when he couldn’t hear the knight’s voice, thinking he was alone again, but somehow it almost felt like he could feel his presence even in the dark and silence, and knowing that he wasn’t alone and that the other man was doing the same thing as him made it a lot better.

“How do you know how to do that?” he finally asked when it felt like he could breathe.

“Gaius taught me. As a child I used to break into tears at the slightest provocation, and as I got older I just got better at hiding the anxiety attacks, but they didn’t go away. Merlin caught me having one one day, when I was supposed to lead training for the first time. He told me the same thing had happened to him when he first came to Camelot, from the stress, and took me to Gaius. The physician prescribed me a tonic I could take to help me sleep when the anxiety kept me up, and showed me some ways to manage it better during the day.” The unspoken ending to that admission, that ‘we look out for one other’ soothed some of Percival’s worries about whether he would ever see his friends again if he lost the use of his legs. The other knights wouldn’t just abandon him.

They  _ hadn’t _ just abandoned them, as Percival heard something shift by his head, and suddenly torchlight was streaming in through a gap in the rocks.

“Percival!” Elyan shouted. “I found him!” This time, when the big knight sobbed, there was someone to reach through the crack in the rocks and, while the others worked to free him and Leon, he held his hand.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments/Kudos are always appreciated


End file.
